Saban, Self, Brey visit DeMatha

On Tuesday night, Kansas Coach Bill Self and Notre Dame's Mike Brey were among
those in attendance to watch the Stags' basketball team beat Bishop Ireton.

On Thursday afternoon, Alabama's Nick Saban was spotted wandering the halls in search of football players. Okay, just kidding, he was wandering the halls with Coach Bill McGregor before his home visit with All-Met offensive lineman Arie Kouandjio.

Kouandjio will take official visits to Alabama, Miami and Tennessee in January and already has taken visits to California and New Mexico.
Not that Saban was the only college football coach making an appearance Thursday in Hyattsville. McGregor said that Virginia's new coach Mike London made a stop, along with assistants from (and this might not be the full list): Maryland, Miami, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Bryant, Bowie State and Washington and Jefferson.

"It was a crazy day," McGregor said. "One after the next."

As for Virginia's new coach, McGregor said he has known London from assistant coaching stops at Virginia, Richmond and Boston College. It seems from my conversations that local high school coaches like London and it's safe to say McGregor also is in that camp.

"He's a great guy," McGregor said. "He wanted [All-Met offensive lineman Shane Johnson] but since Shane committed to go to Pittsburgh he was basically coming in to say hello."

Also, DeMatha defensive back Michael Coley appears headed to California, with an announcement possible in the next few days.

As for basketball, Stags Coach Mike Jones said he cannot remember seeing so many college coaches at his team's games so early in the season.

"Even when we played Don Bosco, James Morton from Miami was there," Jones said. "Xavier and Arizona have been to games this year. I know everybody is targeting Hopkins and Cook and people are trying to do their work early with Robinson and the younger Grant. It's a great thing, but I can't remember a year since I've been at DeMatha where there have been so many schools so consistently so early."

Jones expects that Kansas soon will offer Hopkins, though neither Hopkins nor Cook have begun to whittle their long lists of suitors. The most recent addition for both players was Connecticut, which offered each last week, Jones said.

"It was his first time seeing Mikael play, his assistants had seen Mikael plenty," Jones said. "Different schools do it different ways. Bill Self is one of those coaches, he's not going to offer until he's seen with his own eyes. Now that he's seen him and Mikael played very well, he's going to offer him."